The present invention relates generally to carbon nanotubes and more particularly to transforming carbon nanotubes using light.
Ten years after their discovery, carbon nanotubes continue to reveal fascinating features. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have a range of remarkable mechanical and electronic properties due to their unique structure, as discussed in Dresselhaus, M. S., Dresselhaus, G., Avouris, P. “Carbon nanotubes: synthesis, structure, properties, and applications,” Springer, Berlin, New York (2001). There has been a previous study on the elastic response (deformation) of nanotubes to visible light, as discussed in Zhang, Y. and Iijima, S. “Elastic response of carbon nanotube bundles to visible light”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 3472–3475 (1999). In other words, the authors of this study report that the nanotubes elastically deformed in response to irradiation by light and then returned to their original shape.